What’s the next move for the Golden Knights?

Surprise, surprise. The Vegas Golden Knights have made a move to improve their team. The nine-year-old Knights have always been aggressive on the trade market, so Sunday’s news that they acquired defenseman Rasmus Andersson from the Calgary Flames in exchange for defenseman Zach Whitecloud, prospect Abram Wiebe, and two draft picks is in keeping with their well-earned reputation.

If history is any lesson, this deal won’t be enough to fully satiate general manager Kelly McCrimmon. The Flames retained 50% of Andersson’s $4.55 million cap hit, meaning Vegas could still have room to add another piece before the trade deadline. Andersson fills a need as a right-handed blueliner, but the Golden Knights could still use some reinforcements either in goal or in their forward ranks.

On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by The Fourth Period‘s David Pagnotta to discuss who might be Vegas’ next trade target.

Tyler Yaremchuk: If the Golden Knights continue to add, where do you think they’re looking to add?

David Pagnotta: It’ll be up front, if they do. I think the preference would be at the center position. You’re right, they did clear up cap space. They actually gained $475,000 worth of space. Right now, that would give them enough to take Brayden McNabb off of LTIR. They’ve cleared enough to make that happen and give them a little bit of extra space, so if they do anything, it’s got to be very cap friendly, as much as it can be.

But I think the center position would be it. Mitch Marner is playing that position right now, William Karlsson is out for the rest of the regular season. The hope is that either Mitch can maintain that slot and be their 2C effectively, and still get number-one power play minutes quarterbacking that, or they can find an affordable option up the middle that maybe gives Mitch a bit of a break there, because this is the first time he’s played that position at the NHL level, consistently anyway.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…